Airbnb Study Reveals Legal Rentals Make for the Friendliest Hosts

Skift Take

The study points to the positive aspects of Airbnb’s live-like-a-local positioning and the sense of community the brand can offer its hosts and renters, but also highlights the challenges of making that happen in its most popular markets.

— Samantha Shankman

Southern gentlemen, West Coast creatives, and academics make the best Airbnb hosts, according to a new study released today by the San Francisco-based startup.

To create the list, Airbnb guests were asked to rate the cleanliness, check-in experience, host communication, value, and accuracy of expectations at the end of each stay. Cities included in the study hosted at least 500 trips in the past two years and feedback was only from guests who stayed in a spare bedroom, rather than rent out an entire house.

The study found that older hosts and females tend to receive the best feedback and that younger guests were more likely to leave positive reviews than older users. Guests booking the furthest in advance were the most likely to post a positive rating.

Missing Cities

According to Airbnb’s data, none of the hosts in America’s largest cities, nor Airbnb’s most profitable markets, are killing their guests with kindness.

“None of our top cities by booking made this list,” Airbnb representative Emily Joffrion told Skift.

Included in those top cities is the platform’s two largest markets, New York City and San Francisco, where the most popular type of Airbnb rentals — full units for less than 30 days — are illegal in most cases. Shared units, which this Airbnb study looked at, are not as popular in major urban markets.